Andrew Burton/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- As the saying goes, there’s no crying in baseball.

And in women’s softball, there isn’t any crying either -- but there is a lot of smack talk. At least there is for Wednesday night’s sixth annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game, pitting lady lawmakers against women of the press in a friendly rivalry with some serious bragging rights at stake.

Much of the smack talk has been happening on Twitter, where Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., started it off early on game day morning with this tweet to the captains of the press team:

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will be throwing out the first pitch at Wednesday night’s game, which in and of itself might bring a sentimental tear or two among the players or the expected 1,000 spectators.

Giffords, who played in the 2009 game, was critically injured by a gunshot to the head in 2011. Her taking of the mound for the ceremonial opening pitch is testament to her progress during a lengthy recovery.

Funds from Wednesday night’s game benefit the Young Survivor’s Coalition. This year’s game has already raised over $150,000 and over $500,000 since the tradition began. YSC is dedicated to the critical issues unique to young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer.

The lawmakers team is a distinctly bipartisan group, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, D-Fla.; and Rep. Shelley Moore-Capito, R-W.Va., who has found time for softball despite being in the midst of a heavily contested Senate race in her home state.

But as Wasserman-Schultz told CNN, softball is a “politics-free zone.”

And on the press side, professional rivalries take a backseat to sportsmanship as well. Members of the “Bad News Babes” include journalists from The New York Times, CNN, the Huffington Post and ABC News, among others.

And in another sign of how seriously the “Babes” are taking the game and the rivalry, Roll Call, which includes not one but two players on the team, has posted a Softball Fantasy Game.